ABSTRACT
Iconicity is based on Gregory of Nyssa's use of the term eikon to refer to the actualization of a thing's essence rather than the replication of its likeness. Iconicity persists even when a type and its variants are eschatologically laden and come under theological or ecclesiastical pressure to deliver a message or confess a doctrine— as is inevitable in a Christian context. It also persists in secular contexts where artists may approach tradition eclectically by appropriating its objects while rejecting the continuities and exchanges in which they are engaged. Eschatology uses the archaic image to persuade, indoctrinate, or instantiate its supernatural claims, while modernism analyzes and recomposes it according to its ideological and aesthetic prerogatives. The aesthetic character of iconicity explains its fluidity and operation across cultural, chronological, and geographical boundaries in interactions and exchanges that foster contextual plasticity and allow images to engage a variety of meanings from multiple perspectives.
